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| Copyright MARVEL COMICS |
Time now for a super selection of SPIDER-MAN COMICS WEEKLY covers, plus a few later incarnations of the title (which you'll see in part two). Sorry to go on about this, but - wow - 40 years old in most cases, I can hardly believe it. I don't even think of myself as that old - until I catch a glimpse of my reflection in a shop window, that is.
I'd first read the THOR tale reprinted in SMCW #s 123-124 in its original American edition (#158) in 1968 or '69, but I never got to see the wrap-up story 'til it was reprinted in the U.K. Spidey title (#s 125-126) in 1975. Of course, nowadays, 6 or 7 years is no time at all to people my age, but back then it wasn't too far off half my life away and seemed like a far-distant era. Around 10 years later ('85 or '86), I re-acquired Thor #158 and obtained #159, and finally got to see the cataclysmic conclusion in colour.
Anyway, why bore you readers with my reminiscences when you've all doubtless got your own to relive. Why not share them with your fellow Crivs and perhaps inspire them to do likewise? Go on - be the first to take the plunge and spread some joy.
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| Even in British comics, eh? Who'da thunk it? |
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| The Thor versus Hercules saga - all for only 50p - wotta bargain! |
Yeah it very hard to believable it was 40 years ago I bought these comics, I can still recall picking some of these issues up (especially issue 50) - I know I had all of these but for some reason I have no memory at all of issue 125 - ahh good days
ReplyDeleteI recall trudging down to a newsagent's in The Village (no, not the TV one) on a dark and rainy weekday (I think) evening to buy #50 back in the day, McScotty. I can't look at the cover without remembering the lights of the shop lit up against the darkness as I approached. Sadly the shop is now a restaurant, and I haven't been back inside since the late '70s or early '80s (or whenever it breathed its last). Good days indeed, and I often think back on them.
ReplyDeleteTalking about the "Village" (East Kilbride old town for those not knowing what I on about) there was a really good little shop selling mostly toys (near the Co-op) that also had some new comics and a good and cheap back issue section a few years ago , I managed to get the Marvel Tales version of the story that appeared in SMCW issue 50 for 50p, was a great wee place for the odd bargain, sadly as time went on the bargains and good back issues dried up (mostly as I bought loads of them) and what remained were pretty poor/bland back issues. Sadly the shop closed about 5/6 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI've a notion that it could have been called 'The One', McScotty, but couldn't swear to it. The shop opened with much fanfare and publicity, but as you say, it soon went downhill. If I recall correctly, the guy who ran it also once had a shop of the same name in Byers Road (never know if that should have an apostrophe or not), but I don't know how long that one lasted. I only ever bought one thing from the Glasgow version - a Product Enterprise black talking Dalek (which I still have) - then me and a mate retired to the Grosvenor Cafe in Ashton Lane for a coffee. Alas, another fondly-remembered establishment no longer there.
ReplyDeleteMeant to say that the copy of SMCW #50 might've been a replacement copy for one I'd bought a few days earlier, which I'd damaged in some way, That's the impression I have, but I couldn't swear to it 'cos my memory's no longer what it once was.
That name rings a bell, I think it had a (pretty poor) cafe at the back of the shop as well that did better business than the shop itself - I don't recall the Byres Road shop but when I would go to that area of Glasgow it was usually to head to Arthur's (sadly now gone) Futureshock (sadly now gone as well) and /or Bar Brel which happily is still there ( and was literally next door to the old - and great, Grosvenor Cafe) - talking of Cafes if you haven't already done so, you should try the University Cafe its like stepping back to the 70s and they do good coffee and amazing ice cream.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes visit the cafe IN the university, McScotty, if that's the one you mean. Incidentally, Futureshock is still there, it's just not open for business since Neil Craig's demise. Got a few quid? Why not buy it and make it a going concern again? (Someone should.) You'd be in your element. You could employ some nubile young nymph to attract the lads to spend their dosh, while you got on with your secret agent work for the government. (Sh*t! I've just blown your cover.)
ReplyDeleteNo the University Cafe is on Byres Road itself.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.yell.com/biz/the-university-cafe-and-takeaway-glasgow-904525/
I imagine if I got a nubile young lady in to serve in a comic book shop most of the clientèle fanboys would be too scared/shy to buy anything - you have to remember not all comic fans are international playboy lovers with the ladies like we are Kid. To be honest opening a comic book shop is not something that interests me at all I love visiting them but to immerse myself in comics (new ones especially) as I imagine you would have to do in that business, seems a bit err sad at 50 plus - saying that a back issue weekend store/stall is something I have looked into. ideally a good coffee shop would be my shop / business of choice....with a nubile young lady serving of course!
Ah, right. I'll be sure to check it out the next time I'm in Glasgow. There's simply too many cafes for me to get around to in one day, but I'll make a point of seeking out this one. And you're right - I was forgetting that most comic book fanboys are geeky, bespectacled types who never wash, have plooks, buck teeth and have never had a girlfriend. I think you'd find that running a coffee shop was just as much of a chore as running a comic shop - business is business after all. The solution is to OWN either a comic or coffee shop and have someone else run it. Roll on that Lottery win.
ReplyDeleteMy first issue of SMCW was No. 103, only a couple of months after I'd discovered Marvel comics. I then got it every week till about No. 152, dropped it and didn't start reading it again till the merger with Captain Britain so I missed most of the landscape period (apart from the odd one here and there). The funny thing is I don't remember most of the SMCW covers shown here even though I know I had them - by contrast most of the POTA covers are seared into my memory.
ReplyDeleteI suppose if something doesn't make an impression on you at the time, CJ, you tend not to remember it later, whereas if something smacks you right in the kipper (figuratively speaking), then you never forget it. I've been surprised myself at what I've sometimes seemingly forgotten, but which I know I had.
ReplyDeleteKid, the one SMCW cover shown here that I remember very well is No.111 - the "I Am Spider-Man" one. About 10 years ago I read that story again in a Marvel Essentials volume and I thought the ending was rather silly - Spidey persuades the Prowler to dress up as Spider-Man and show up while Peter is with his friends so proving he can't be Spider-Man after all but the Prowler has a huge afro hairdo so how would the Spidey mask fit over that ? You don't notice these things when you're nine but you do when you're an adult.
ReplyDeleteSimple. He'd pull a swimming cap (or something) over his hair before donning the mask. Just because you didn't see it doesn't mean it didn't happen. (I'm a genius, I am.)
ReplyDeleteMcScotty, the shop was called 'The Dream' - I don't know where I got 'The One' from.
ReplyDelete